


Kinswomen

by Medie



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Extras, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-22
Updated: 2011-03-22
Packaged: 2017-10-17 05:18:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/173314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As far as tradition is concerned, you're already my daughter and, tradition be damned, you're already my friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kinswomen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [igrockspock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/gifts).



> my thanks to my beta -- to be named later of course!

"You don't marry the legend. You marry the man and let the legend take care of itself." The words spill out of Amanda before she realizes what she's saying, catching them both off guard. T'Pring looks startled by the blandly spoken words, but covers it quickly and, Amanda thinks, not without gratitude. "I apologize," she says, smiling with the words. "That didn't come out the way I'd planned."

Sitting across from her, beautiful in the afternoon sun, T'Pring nods slowly. "I surmised as much, but there is wisdom in your words nevertheless. I had not considered such."

"No one ever does," Amanda says, laughing with the rush of memory. "I didn't." This time, when T'Pring looks startled, she lays a hand on the girl's and squeezes. The contact is intentional, letting T'Pring see the briefest glimpse of her thoughts. "Yes," she says, after removing her hand, "It wasn't so many years ago—" more than she cares to consider, "—that I was the one sitting here with Sarek's mother."

Lady T'Vei, wife of Skon, daughter of an old and noble clan that had adopted Amanda as their own and represented her at the wedding in place of parents long lost and after, with sensible advise and a listening ear.

"I beg apology," T'Pring says, ducking her gaze. "I had not considered that either."

"Fear does that," Amanda says. She leans forward, catching T'Pring's eye. Not continuing until T'Pring makes eye contact and holds it. "Yes, I know, it's unseemly and terribly unVulcan to speak of such things, but I'll make the same bargain with you that T'Vei made with me, all right?"

"It would, I think, depend on your terms." T'Pring's voice is cautious, still that of her son's betrothed and not the forceful, opinionated young woman Amanda's come to know.

"What happens in the rose garden stays in the rose garden. Say what you will here. It goes no further." Amanda grins. With T'Vei, it was the library—her mother-in-law's favorite place to work—but the intent's the same and, by the way T'Pring's shoulders relax, acceptable either way. "As far as tradition is concerned, you're already my daughter and, tradition be damned, you're already my friend. If you go through with the bonding or not, you'll always be that."

T'Pring breathes in, nodding once. "Your terms are acceptable to me."

"Good," Amanda nods. "My son has asked a lot of you these past years. More than he should have." Amanda presses her lips together, not wanting to spill her aggravation with her husband and son.

"I chose to remain on Vulcan and complete my studies. Spock is not responsible for the poor behaviour of others," T'Pring says. "As nothing could be done, I chose not to tell him of the controversy. It would have distracted him from his studies."

"Maybe," Amanda says, "but as you were already distracted from _yours_ , wouldn't it have been fair?"

T'Pring shifts, uncomfortable. "Perhaps," she says, "However—"

"However you are a Vulcan and you don't admit weakness easily," Amanda starts to sit back, but quashes the instinct when she realizes that T'Pring might take it as a withdrawal and, therefore, a personal judgment. "Admirable," she says, instead. Somewhere within her thoughts, she senses Sarek's presence, but doesn't reach for it. This is a conversation not meant for Sarek's ears, be that in his role as husband or father.

"Thank you."

"I wasn't talking about your strength." Amanda says, "Although that is quite impressive—you've certainly put up with more than I managed in your shoes." She laughs a little, shaking her head with the memory. "I was very naive in those days. I knew Sarek's family was powerful, but I didn't _know_. I had no idea what kind of role I was taking on myself when I married him. It'd been years, centuries even, since any family really held that kind of political and cultural influence on Earth. I didn't know and it didn't really occur to Sarek to _tell_ me."

"He was unaccustomed to such ignorance of his background," T'Pring says before blushing green. "I apologize that—I did not mean to say that you were—I am going to cease speaking before, as you might say, I dig any deeper."

Amanda can't help it. She laughs. "Someone's been practising their Terran idioms."

"I thought it prudent," T'Pring says, then adds, in a softer voice, "It is unfair that you have learned so much of us and we so little of you."

Not expecting it, it's a second before Amanda's brain catches up. Rueful, she nods. "You hit the nail right on the head. I can say the same of you, T'Pring."

"I am unfamiliar with statement, however, I believe you refer to accuracy of subject?" T'Pring's gaze was decidedly mischievous for a Vulcan. "If I am wrong, then I must advise you that my chosen field is that of engineering and not carpentry."

Amanda snorts despite herself. "If I weren't already married, T'Pring—"

"—and I not betrothed to your son, yes," T'Pring nods. "I believe we would make a formidable match."

"Absolutely," Amanda says. She reaches for her glass, letting T'Pring refill it before drinking. The heat of high summer, even after so many years, still does a number on her. "Thank you," she says, then continues, "Anyway, you were right. Too much gets assumed around here and it shouldn't. When you and Spock were betrothed, you were children. Your parents understood the import of marrying both a son of Surak's house _and_ the son of an outworlder. You didn't."

T'Pring looks thoughtful. "I wished to live in a small house overlooking the Forge with Spock and I-Chaya. We would have two daughters, one son, and you would teach me to grow roses."

"I remember, you were fascinated by my garden." Amanda curls fingers around her glass, quelling the urge to take T'Pring's hand again. The idea of her son not marrying the young woman before her is heartbreaking for so many reasons. She tries to imagine someone else in Spock's life and is surprised by the vehemence of her reaction. It's hard to believe that, once, she'd nearly left Sarek over the idea of this marriage. "The offer to teach you still stands, you know, and will continue to do so, whatever your choice."

"I am angry with him," T'Pring says, so quietly Amanda nearly doesn't hear it. "It is illogical to be such over my own choices, but I am."

"Welcome to being married," Amanda says, light-hearted to soften the truth. "It takes time to figure this out and that's _with_ a marriage bond. Right now, you have nothing but the faintest of links. It takes effort to make any kind of connection."

"And neither of us has tried," T'Pring exhales. "We have both failed."

"And you will again. Whoever you marry, T'Pring, you will fail and you will succeed many times over the course of that marriage," Amanda says, recalling more than a few of both from her own marriage. "I hesitate to call it one of the greatest joys of marriage, but it is one. One among many."

"The Lady T'Vei's advice to you?"

"After a fashion," Amanda agrees. She tips her head, adding, "Mostly T'Vei informed me that her son had committed a grievous oversight in not informing me as to the expectations placed upon me and, while she hoped I would not terminate the bond, I was fully in my right to do so. She also suggested that if I did wish to remain married, but see Sarek suitably punished, she would have a Terran dog house constructed for him to spend several months living in."

"I—do Human women exile their husbands to such structures?" T'Pring looks horrified.

"Only when our husbands do something truly vile," Amanda says, but suspects she's giving herself away with the barely restrained laughter.

The look T'Pring gives her in answer to that is unabashedly affectionate. "Then I shall reserve that for future use."

"I'll see you get the blueprints." Amanda lets her smile fade into the companionable silence, her mind already chasing around the differing ways she might continue the conversation. Explaining who she'd been in those days and the turmoil that had gone hand-in-hand with the dizzying joy. "The truth is," she says, taking her time with speaking, "you two have to figure this out on your own. I can only do the same thing for you that T'Vei did for me. Huff and puff about my son's mistakes and promise you a willing ear whenever you need it—whatever you decide."

"And whatever I decide," T'Pring says, just as slowly, "I will avail myself of that ear."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [This Coyness, Lady (a 'Kinswomen' remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1576190) by [Moriwen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moriwen/pseuds/Moriwen)




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